MOBILE »

rosicrucianU.com         
Simplified Scientific Christianity         

Bible Self-Study Supplement


Nimrod — The Path of Pursuit

   Having examined the Bible story of the Tower of Babel, it is interesting to read the following version of the same event as recorded in the Haggada, a rabbinical exposition of the Scriptures.

   Cush, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, married in his old age and begat a son whom he called Nimrod, because in those days the people were beginning to rebel against the Lord's command, and "Nimrod" means "rebellion."

   After his victory over the sons of Japheth, the sons of Japheth became his subjects. Nimrod builded a walled city and called it Shina, and dwelt there, gradually becoming ruler over the entire world. All the people of the earth were then of one language and one speech.

   In Genesis we read that Nimrod "began to be a mighty one in the earth ... a mighty hunter before the Lord." Nimrod was on the "path of pursuit." He represents humanity in its quest for worldly possessions and power, temporarily subjugating its higher nature (Japheth) and compelling it to serve personal ambition. The interests of self were separated from the good of the whole, for the city (consciousness) which he built was walled in. Gradually he ruled the world. The Iron Age had come. Possessions were the measure of power and might was right.

   The rebellion against the Lord's command here spoken of consists in a separation in consciousness from the Will of God. There are several aspects to this separation. The spirit's descent into matter drew a veil over its universal consciousness and it became less sensitive to divine guidance. Its newly acquired powers of mind set themselves up in opposition to the inner promptings of the God within. The desires of the lower nature were at war with those of the higher. The Lucifer spirits aided and abetted the fiery desires in their rebellion against reasoned control by the mind and guidance by the inner monitor. Man was launching out on a self-directed career, for better or for worse.

   Commenting on the exploit of the people of Nimrod, Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, writes: "As is to be known by the children of Nimrod at the Tower of Babel, when they had fallen from obedience to God into their own individual reason, then they had lost their guide and did confound reason so that they comprehended not truth any more. Their own reason, which was mixed of all colors, had to rule them."

   The Haggada account continues:

   The gods they would set up and worship were the newly awakened powers of mind. Proud and egotistic, they exhibited the qualities of Lucifer, to whose influence they were strongly susceptible, and proposed to oppose their strength against the Lord of Hosts. With arrow and spear they meant to wage war in Heaven, a battle which, in one of its aspects, is a conflict between the lower and the higher nature, between the forces of materiality with those of spirit.

   Freewill is man's divine prerogative. According to his choice will be his recompense, by the working of the infallible law of compensation. Whether it be good or ill, "whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap."

   They wept over the loss of a stone but were indifferent to the loss of a life. In a material civilization property values supersede human values. In this lies the seed of its own destruction. Where there is little or no regard for another, there is neither sympathy nor understanding. There is a confusion of strange tongues, a warring of conflicting interests, a dispersion over the face of the Earth. Love is the cohesive force through which comes strength and unity. Where this is absent disruptive forces bring enterprises of whatsoever nature to naught.

   The Haggada's exposition concludes:

   The end of three Epochs and the passing of three successive civilizations are here mentioned. The Lemurian continent "burned down;" the Atlantean "sank down," and the present post-Atlantean Earth will stand till "Babylon is fallen" — the material civilization of the present Epoch. Then follows another Epoch, when the Sixth Root Race will rise above the separative, contentious conditions of the present, recognizing once again the unity of each with all. Nations and races as we know them today will pass. Universal consciousness will be regained and cooperative brotherhood will become an actuality on Earth.

 — Corinne Heline


Click on the diagrams below for more information:





Contemporary Mystic Christianity


This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization.

|  Mobile Version  |